Advice for GMing a Plotted Campaign?

[Ariosto]

Sometime in the next few months, it will be my turn to GM. This is for a group currently of 5 other players, with typically 3 weeks between sessions.

The current membership favors a largely GM-driven "extended story line" approach. I don't have much experience at running that style, and the last 3 GMs did not pull it off very well.

Years ago, I had some success with single-session plotted/event-driven scenarios. Doing it at greater length seems a bit daunting.

So, even if something seems too elementary to mention, it may be helpful to me!

 

[Ariosto]

The preferred rules set is 1970s-80s D&D with whatever house rules suit the GM. The players basically see it as the GM's job to relieve them of the burden of needing to deal much with game systems.

I think they will go for making the PCs all warriors of one sort or another, relegating professional sorcerers to supporting cast and villains. This should answer issues that arose in previous (2E and 3E D&D) games in this style. It is also in keeping with many works in the literary tradition of heroic fantasy.

I can provide magical resources more particularly woven into the milieu and story line.

 

[Ariosto]

My first thought is that each session should be a well-rounded "episode" in itself. The long time between sessions makes it awkward to resume situations left off while in progress.

My second thought is that I could set up a series of essentially "site based" scenarios with clear objectives. A number of them might not need to be taken in any particular order, and some might even be skipped. That would yield a partly player-driven game, with choices as to where to go on the map.

The "story line" component would come in with the larger structure. I have in mind an epic quest along the lines of Tolkien, et al. I mean not necessarily the whole "dark lord rising" deal -- maybe something more personal -- but a grand scenario with an overall goal and driving pressures on top of a travelogue element. The epic could alternate with the picaresque.

The players have no problem using pregenerated characters, so I can tailor those to the game.

One thing that occurs to me is that events should challenge characters' -- and players' -- assumptions. Because this is a game rather than a novel, it would be too heavy handed to stipulate in advance the direction that character development should take. However, there should be situations primed to demand character-defining responses.

 

[Mark CMG]

One thing that occurs to me is that events should challenge characters' -- and players' -- assumptions. Because this is a game rather than a novel, it would be too heavy handed to stipulate in advance the direction that character development should take. However, there should be situations primed to demand character-defining responses.

This last section seems somewhat contradictory to the plan you have laid out thus far. However, if everyone is on board with a plot-driven campaign, I'd suggest beginning each session with a brief narrative devised from your primary campaign plot and incorporating events from previous sessions with some input from players in between games, garnered from table talk and any emails or conversations you have from the players in person. The narrative at the top of each session should be clear about the campaign plot goals and how any individual goals might interlace with them. It should also be clear about what the session or immediate mission is, so that players know roughly what their goals are likely to be. If thy deviate, you can make adjustments between sessions and work that in during the following session narrative. This allows for some flexibility in an otherwise plot-driven campaign.

 

[kitsune9]

Doing an extended storyline approach requires a little planning beforehand.

1. Identify a central theme of what the campaign will be about. Think about how many levels you want it to run before you continue the campaign with a new story or start a new campaign. Let's choose something simple like, "An evil temple wants to establish itself as the main religion in the country." We decide that this will last 1st through 10th level.

2. Next break up the central theme by how many parts it consists of. This should give you a good range of levels to work with. If you break up into 10 parts, then each part should allow the PC's to level up 1 level. If you break it up into 3 parts, then each part should get the PC's to level 4 by the end of Part 1, level 7 by the end of Part 2, and level 10 by the end game part. Note, the more parts you state to run the campaign, the smaller each adventure; however that involves more detail and planning at the beginning. The less parts you state to run the campaign, the longer your adventures will be but will require "filler" material to keep the players engage. Let's just choose three parts so now we have three adventures that we'll need to come up with.

3. The first part should be for characters levels 1 -3 with them leveling up to 4th level at the conclusion of the game. So what does the evil temple need to do in order to accomplish it's task? There are lots of things:
a. Forge alliances with the powerful through extortion or promise of power/profit
b. Create a scandal/disparage with the current main religion
c. Look for a magical artifact to increase it's magical and physical power.
d. Secretly back a war in which it will step in to offer "aid" in order to come across as heroes.
e. Perform a very powerful ritual that will unleash a demon/devil that can destroy the country or bow before the evil temple's power.
f. And so on...keep adding ideas here and then pick a few.

For the first part, let's choose secretly back a war. Undead floods down from the mountains attacking the countryside. The country is heavily defending itself, but this evil religion steps in and offers aid. Normally, the country would rely on the good clergy, but they are far outnumbered to deal with the undead, so the country reluctantly accepts. The PC's role is that they are sent up in the mountains to abandoned cemetery to clear out any undead there. Since we have three levels of adventuring for the first part, we need to:
1. Investigate a village which has a suspected necromancer and find him.
2. Get the location of the cemetery where the undead are coming from and stop the source of power that's causing them to rise again.
3. Explore the catacombs where they discover priests of the same evil religion creating and unleashing undead.

At the end of the first part, the PC's have evidence that this war is not what it seems, so who should they go to? The king of course.

In the second part, the temple is working to ensure their alliances through extortion or promises of power. The PC's, bringing evidence, that the evil temple is behind the war, are on the way to the capital. However, the evil temple is not stupid and through divination, discovers that there are others who know the truth, so they send assassins. At a stopover town, the PC's are attacked and whatever evidence they have is stolen. No one is going to believe their story without their evidence.

They track down the assassins hold up in some ruins and rumble. They recover their evidence and get to the capital. They immediately find out that there are warrants for their arrest and that the king has appointed a new priest as his divine advisor, the high priest of the temple of evil! The PC's have to hide and seek out allies in the capital who will listen. They find a noble who is not corrupted and the PC's discover that evil temple is holding the king's family for ransom with the help of a grand duke. The PC's discover this location and go out to free the royal family.

At the end of the second part, the PC's have reached 7th level and the king is seeking to arrest the high priest. The temple is on the run, but they are not finished. Now there are two ways to play this part out, the PC's discover the "hidden" temple where there is likely to be the high priest and his entourage. The king will send troops and supplies along with the PC's to take the temple. If the DM doesn't want that to happen, then have the troops attacked by temple minions and held up or slaughtered. Then it's up to the PC's. Or the PC's keep the knowledge to themselves for whatever reason and then they go deal with the temple on their own terms.

However, to get there, they have to go through a blasted wasteland in the mountains (i.e. undead and goblinoid encounters here), a slavery ring in which the temple is digging for an artifact to exact revenge upon the king, and then the final temple itself.

Tada! Extended plot campaign. If you publish this, I get 30% of all royalties.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I favor the episodic style, with vague future plot hooks. I map out a series of plot points and tie them into whatever choices the PCs make. I tend to go for a web of different plot lines that tie loosely into each other and decide which are the main plotlines and which are subplots or sideplots, depending on which the players are most interested in.

So, for instance, plot A has Orcus as the final BBEG, while plot B is all about the Merchant Guild's attempt at a governmental coup. If the players favor the Orcus plotline, I'll tie the Merchant Guild episodes into Orcus's machiavellian scheme to destabilize the region (for his eventual Epic level invasion), while if they favor the Guild plotline, the Merchant Guild has been funding groups of Orcus cultists to spread fear among the people, giving them the leverage they need to execute the coup.

Whatever the final destination ends up being, the key is making it seem like it was the plan all along.

 

[Hungry Like The Wolf]

This is my preferred style as well. I usually approach each campaign with a clear story arc in mind. You need to decide how long your campaign is going to run for because that will help you pace the arc over an appropriate time.

In most D&D games the PCs are reactive, don't let this happen. Each player should have a goal that ties into the arc you have sketched out. You can do this by creating a short list of backgrounds that will tie into the plot.

For example. One player chooses the orphaned background you wrote up. Fairly cliche, time honored character origin but little do they know their adoptive parents tie into the villains entourage and a sprinkling of clues will lead the PC on the journey to find the truth of their birth parents and answer the question of why his adoptive parents were evil.

Again, the clues for the PC should be paced appropriately with main arc. Do this sort of thing for every character and then decide how best to pace their own story plots. The goal is to make the PC proactive in your story arc by giving them clues which will engage them in their own story which in turn ties into the arc.

I think Chris Pramas said it best when he said you have character plot sessions, story arc sessions and monster of the week sessions. Just like the X-Files where they had Mulder's sister episodes, Scully's rational struggle episodes and myth arc episodes tied around monster of the weeks.

Now each player has a goal, remember to plot significant challenges around that goal. It doesn't always have to be arc related but the PC should feel accomplished after a session or sessions which developed their story.

Keep a journal which tracks the development of your arc and player's stories. I use a flow chart, you need to visualise how the story has changed based on player decisions and where it is logically heading.

Episodic fiction isn't easy to write and it's even harder to write for in a D&D campaign where the player's decisions will ultimately decide the direction of the arc.

Although, if you can put the above into action then you have the basics. It'll be all down hill from there. Good luck, I find this style of gaming incredibly rewarding, I hope you will as well.

 

[AeroDm]

My main advice would be to go simple. A nuanced and many layered plot is incredibly hard to pull off unless you have thoroughly planned everything. Just pick one simple theme and present adventures that tackle it from different angles. In this way the world will feel rich and not railroaded, but everything will still be pointing in one direction. Don't worry, players will imagine up all sorts of complexities to make it seem more complicated than it really is.

I would also plan as much of the story as possible at a very high level before you ever begin. Reduce an adventure to a simple sentence and then make sure that when you read them in succession it makes some sense. If it is confusing written out in concise sentences, it will be incredibly confusing played in 4 hr chunks separated by a week or more.

 

[Oversquid]

I'm currently trying to run a very long term adventure with multiple chapters. Some advice that I will give is more on the perspective of a writer:

1. What is at stake? When I ask this question, I mean, what is going on in the world that the players must see to resolving.

Once you know whats at stake, introduce whats at stake in the first adventure. I'm not saying reveal everyone's plans, I'm saying introduce the trouble, be it the villain, or perhaps something the villain did that was heinous, or even a factor of a larger picture. Just something to give to the players so they can look at it.

For example, and I am taking this example from another: Suppose the players start out in a village, and a cow herder complains that his cows have been stolen. After some investigations, the players find that goblins stole the cows.

Then when the players go into the goblin cave and find they cows, they also come across some documents at the chief's throne detailing the growth of a large army, and how the goblins are helping them grow.

THEN when the players find the large army, they'll find that the large army is really being manipulated by an army of Drow who are looking at weaking the surface before they strike.

All that buildup, because the cow herder's cows were stolen by goblins. The real trick, which I find to be the hardest part, is giving the players just enough that they'll want to keep going on, but not giving them so much that they'll know how it all ends.



2. The Players are the main characters. This is something I'm sure you know already, but it always bears repeating. Even if the plot were to go on a grand scheme, it must abide by the directions the players go. Of course, this does not mean that when the players dodge the plot that you must follow along with them, as that's a whole other problem altogether. Instead, when the players interact with the plot, you must flex with their choices, as the players will go a direction you would never have expected them to go in a million years.

I'm not a very good improviser all things considered, so what I do is I plan out a multitude of responses from any one given event. Then when I introduce important characters, I write a paragraph or two about their personalities to help me in playing as them, and in turn, being able to respond to them.



3. Show, NOT Tell. This is another tricky concept, as despite the simplicity of words, its very counter-intuitive. To explain, when you talk to your friends about the day or something, you (At least I think I can say this about you) probably say to your friends something like, "So I went into Burgerland and ate a giant burger". What I said there was an example of telling, which although it does get the point across, its rather bland and boring when put into the context of a story.

To give an example of showing, I'll use the context above, about eating a giant burger at Burgerland:

"I pushed the door to Burgerland open, singing to me with the thick smells of frying oil and grease at the rhythm of my rumbling stomach. The more I heard the beautiful melodies of the kitchen, the more I noticed the large line in front of me. I was Odysseus, tied to the mast while the sirens sang.

After the last person took their order, I was met by a lad who looked just as plump and greasy as the burger I was about to order. The boy said to me mechanically 'Hello, what would you like?' To which I said with a mouthful of drool, 'Get me The Big-Honkin'-Burger' I said squirting the kid with drool while I said, 'with Waffle Fries and a Coke'. The kid sheepishly wiped the drool off of his face with his arm and then said, 'Is that all sir?' 'Yes'.

..."

I haven't even got to the point where he bit into the burger, and I'm sure this was not the best representation of showing, but I do think that was much more interesting than saying, "I got a burger at Burgerland". Of course, telling has its place in conversation, because really, who wants to hear what I just wrote above when I asked what they got at Burgerland?

This is one of the hardest things in my opinion is the Show, NOT Tell rule.



I hope I answered some questions, but these are some of the things I found to be useful when DMing a long term plot oriented campaign.

 

[Janx]

I'm a big fan of story, but I don't advocate heavily plotting an entire campaign. I prefer having a general idea of where it probably will go, but not detail any specifics until I see where the PCs are in relation to that goal for each session.

For instance, from Oversquid's stolen cow example.

You do NOT have to plan out this whole chain of cows to goblins to tribes to drow.

Just like serial TV, you can just leave a dangling element, and pick up on it next session, wherein you plan out where that element led to.

BattleStar Galactica was good at that. Though sometimes it did show too much 'are they just making it up as they go a long', but I'd consider those holes to me a mistake made in the process, not the actual process.

The pre-start challenge is to figure out your general plot "bad guys are trying to wipe out civilization, and the last band of them are trying to survive"

Notice I genericized the BSG story a bit. It can cover all the PC races now. And I didn't pick a specific goal of get to Earth, which might NOT be their plan. Whereas surviving usually is.

From there, I'll request players make PCs that would be motivated to work together and that i can setup into roles comparable to BSG. It wouldn't be as much fun if the PCs were all common citizens living on Cloud 9 with no real chance to interact with the big problems.

When I did a Babylon5 campaign, I required all PCs to be humans serving in some function in the navy (marines, officers, ship's mage all on the same ship).

Having some or all PCs serving in the military or some group (like a church for a cleric) might help out getting them into the groove (namely because the initial command structure lets you "order" them to an evacuation point to get picked up on the BSG, etc.

When I use the NPC command structure system, I always use a likeable, casual management personality as their initial CO, who asks them to take on a problem, etc. using NPCs is a cheezy trick to get things rolling, so I try not to be bossy or screw them over. That comes later with new CO's etc, wherein you give the PCs a chance to rebel, etc.

In any event, the first couple sessions may be simple problems to solve, that may have clues to be deciphered next, aren't fully fleshed out and thus don't reveal the big problem. This lets me get the players vested in their PC and see how things are working out.

Subsequent adventures build off unfinished business from the last, or reveal new problems and opportunities.

I follow the StarTrek model, of using 2 parallel quests. The big danger to the ship, and the personal quest of a PC. Thus, PCs are tackling some big problem like heroes, but also getting moments to advance their personal goals in between that.

With the Bab5 campaign, my goal was to get the PCs to the Battle of the Line. So initial games were problem of the week. Deliver this, help that, etc. A few levels later, PCs got ranked up, and at some point, even got their own command. Then war breaks out, and PCs do some military missions. Eventually all ships get called home for the final defense, and the Battle of the line ensues.

I had a general strategy for getting the party to the Battle, but I did not outline specific sessions. Partly because I worked things based on where the PCs were in their personal quests and timing for the big finale.

For me, the method worked out great and my players still talk about that campaign.